1. Accessibility is simply how people get to the UK and
how easily they can access different destinations.
As like many other places over the years, the United
Kingdom has developed in many ways in order to
make it suitable for a mass market and also to gain
more profit from attracting the mass market. One of
the main features that will have developed drastically
is accessibility into and round the UK for tourists to
use in order to gain access to the UK.

2. There are many form of gaining access into the UK,
just like with most other destinations. You can access the
United Kingdom via rail, air, sea, road and personal
transportation like cars. However, despite this, there is a
clear difference between the popularity of certain types of
access into the UK. The most popular of them all for visitors
is air travel. This means travelling via plane.
This is shown below in the visits to the UK in 2010;
Travelling by sea = 1.7 million
Travelling by air = 2.1 million
Overall, the difference was 468,600,0. This is a dramatic
difference that clearly shows the popularity of air travel
Details from Office Of National Statistics 2012, Travel Trends, Section 4

3. Around the UK there are many regional and international airports that are
available to both domestic visitors (using regional airports) and inbound
visitors (that may use both types of airports) http://www.holidayinyork.com/planning-your-
trip-to-york/getting-to-york/plane-to-york/
http://www.ukairportinformation.com/
Regional airports; an airport that serves air
traffic in a small/lightly populated area
and also usually doesn’t has customs and
immigration facilities that would be used
to process traffic between countries. Some
examples of regional airports are Bristol
Filton and Shoreham.
International airports; an airport that has
the facilities to accommodate international
flights as well as regional flights. Some
examples are London Heathrow,
Major International Airports Edinburgh and Gatwick airport.
Minor Regional Airports

4. For October 2011, the UK has
found a 2.6% increase in the
amount of visitors using UK
airports. Heathrow and Gatwick
combined have managed to
increase their market share of UK
traffic from 45.9% to 46.9% during
the last year, while the UK’s
biggest regional airport at
Manchester has also grown its
share of the UK market from 8.3%
to 8.6%.
http://www.anna.aero/2012/01/11/uk-airports-anticipate-over-130-new-routes-in-2012-as-olympic-fever-
grips-the-nation/
These figures suggest that when times are tough, bigger airports tend to perform better
than smaller ones like London Heathrow. However, Manchester has also re-claimed its
long-held third position among UK airports as London Stansted continues to see modest
declines in demand from both inbound and domestic users.

5. Because both inbound and
domestic visitors both use
airports as a main for of
transport, many airlines like
Ryanair, Atlasjet and Virgin
Atlantic have had to increase
the amount of flights that are
available for the users
because the demand is
higher. This means that there
business is expanding at a
dramatic rate in order to
http://www.anna.aero/2012/01/11/uk-airports-anticipate-over-130-new-routes-in-2012-as-olympic-fever-grips-the-nation/
meet the users needs.
As you can see from the table above, the main airlines that have added new services in
2012 was British Airways (3) with flights to Algiers and Nice. and Monarch (17) to
Antalya, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Heraklion, Milan and Venice . These will help the
airline expand because they will offer a larger range of flights that may be suitable for
the users needs and may also help the airlines to gain a reputation with the customers.

6. As we have previously
mentioned, air travel has
made huge expansions in
the recent years. The table
on the left shows the
dramatic change in the air
services provided because
of the demand by the
customers. It shows which
UK airports have added at
least 5 new services and
also shows that there was
demand from customers.
http://www.anna.aero/2012/01/11/uk-airports-anticipate-over-130-new-routes-in-2012-as-olympic-fever-grips-the-nation
The demand for new air transportation services may be because the UK as a tourist
destination is attracting more domestic and inbound visitors because of the
economic factors. They would also add new services to appeal to a mass market
because these services may be more suitable for a variety of customers, therefore
making more profit and appealing to a mass market and also because of popular
events like the Queen’s golden jubilee and the 2012 Olympics.

7. Source: http://assets.dft.gov.uk/statitics/releases/sea-
passenger-statistics-2011/sea-pass-2011.pdf
In 2011 , 2.1 million passengers travelled to
and from the UK, this is 3% lower than the
2010 figure (21.9 million) and 24% lower than
2001.
The UK’s largest ferry port is Dover; it
handled 12.8 million journeys in 2011 (3%
lower than 2010 and 19% lower than 2001).
The next busiest ports were Portsmouth (2.1
There were 19.0 million passenger
million passengers) and Holyhead (2.0
journeys through the channel tunnel in
million passengers), where there were
2011.
decreases of 7 and 3% respectively in 2010.
In 2011, there were 3.0 million domestic
Overall it would seem that the number of
passenger journeys on the three major
people travelling by sea or tunnel has
routes (between mainland Britain and
generally decreased in recent years, this may
Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and
be a result of air travel becoming more
the Channel Islands), a 2% decrease
accessible and therefore popular.
compared with 2010.

8. Key:
Thames & Kent
South coast
West coast
East coast
The busiest domestic routes are
between Great Britain and
Northern Ireland. Passenger
numbers on these routes fell by
4% to 2.1 million in 2011
Passenger numbers between Great Britain compared with 2010.
and the Isle of Man increased by 0.4% to
0.54 million between 2010 and 2011. Passenger numbers on the
Passenger numbers on the routes sea crossing to Orkney
between Great Britain and the Channel and Shetland rose by 2%
Islands increased by 5% to 0.37 million in to 0.40 million passengers
2011, compared with 2010. between 2009 and 2010.

9. In 2010 there were 0.28 million passengers on other sea
crossings ( Northern Ireland to Isle of Man,
miscellaneous day cruises).
On inter-island routes and river ferries there were 19.4
million and 19.6 million passengers respectively in 2010 .
It is possible to suggest that the number of domestic
passengers has increased because companies organising
the voyages are feeling the increasing need to offer better
deals, especially to domestic tourists who are seeing the
advantages of cheap airline flights – especially as the
number of regional airports also increases.

10. Due to the close proximity of the UK with the rest of Europe it is easy for
European residents to gain access to the UK.
The channel Tunnel is a 50.5 kilometer rail tunnel that runs under the
British Channel ; travelling by the Euro star takes roughly twenty
minutes – proving that this is a highly effective method of travelling
between the UK and France. If the Euro star were to be filled to its
fullest capacity, there would be 766 passengers, showing that a large
number of people now have the opportunity to travel this way with ease.
From looking on the Euro star website it seems that there is also the
option to travel in groups at a lower cost. Not only does the Euro star
link the UK and France but the countries surrounding France.
Source:
http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisure/travel_information.jsp?rfrr=UK%3AUK%3AexpressBook_b
ody_Travel%20Information